'Twas but another good week in Messina. This week we experienced such adventures as: Zone Conference, Spiritual Lessons, 15 Agosto, and much, much more.
So this week we had Zone Conference down in Catania. It
was pretty fun and I very much enjoyed it. I was amazed by how BIG Catania is
compared to Messina. It was HUGE! The Catania Missionaries were busy picking up
President and the Assistants from the Airport so we had to walk about 3 hours
to the Anziani Apartment building and we got there at about 10:30 at
night. (We as in Reggio and Messina
missionaries.) Catania used to have 2 cars until the sisters, bless their
hearts, wrecked the 2nd car. Everybody was okay but now they have to walk
everywhere. In Messina it takes about 1.5 hours to walk the whole city. We
walked for 3 hours in Catania and didn’t even see a fourth of it. It’s huge.
Zone Conference was great and President stressed the
importance of using study time in the morning and the importance of trainers.
Our Zone is very, very, very young. To give you a perspective of how young it
is... 15 of the 18 people in our zone are under 3 transfers. That is to say,
15/18 have only been in Italy for 4 months. My companion is the oldest Elder
with 6 transfers. Sister Waddups stressed the importance of wearing good shoes
and avoiding ingrown toe nails.
It was nice to see all my friends from the MTC as well.
They are doing well and it was fun to talk about our experiences in the
different cities.
The APs forgot the mail for our Zone so we will get all
of our letters in 2 weeks during transfers. But! I did get 4 letters this week
for Mom, Ty, my friend Steve in Sweden, and my friend Blaikly! They were all
sent around August 6ish to August 9ish. Also... The mail theives of Italy are
at it again! 2 of my 4 letters were cut open. Those sneaky fiends may have
taken out some stuff but the actual letters were still there. Oh! Also... The
mail in Sicily is actually a lot worse than the mail on the mainland. So if it
is a letter filled with anything somewhat important you could send it to the
Rome address and it might be better off. Boh. Thanks for the letters though! I
love real mail.
We were able to teach another lesson with Isac and Jial
this week. They are the couple who are missionaries for another church. They
are actually interested, which I think is really awesome! We are currently
teaching them a lot about the plan of salvation and modern revelation. They
believe 100 percent in the Bible—that the Bible is perfect and their church is
based off that. I think I said they believe about 95% what we believe. I like ‘em.
They always give us juice and milkshakes! They have 3 little kids that love it
when we come over and cry when we leave. They are having some struggles
understanding the Prophet Joseph Smith so that’s what we will focus on this
week. Isac knows the Bible better than anybody I have ever met.
This week was also the big 15 Agosto so a lot of tourists
came to watch the big Parade. Which was actually pretty cool. I liked it a sack
(they say that here when they like something a lot). About 2000 young boys
carried this huge tower of cherubs and saints around the city. But no religious
holiday can be complete without lots of strong drinks, bonfires, and techno
music. The people were going crazy for literally the whole 24 hours! And...as
God did in times of old when the people where wicked... A huge thunderstorm
complete with a 4.9 earthquake hit Messina the very next morning. A few people
died actually but nothing was really damaged. I thought it tragic irony. The
earthquake was kinda cool actually. I felt it and ran to the window and opened
the sash to see what was going on but it had ended by that point. Anziano
Stewart slept through it.
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| This is Kushon, who we went to the fair with. Kushon is from Sri Lanka and doesn't speak much Italian. |
That night we ate at Namila and Kushon’s house. They are
Sri Lankan members that love cooking for the missionaries and doing missionary
work. They are new converts and going to the temple this month. Yay! The food
they cook is always super, super hot, and you eat it with your hands. It’s
super good though. I want to learn how to cook Sri Lankan food.
I find it interesting that Italy, for the most part, only
has converts in their wards. The mission of Italy has only been open for 40ish
years so everybody in the ward has a conversion story. There are a few young
kids who were born in the church, but everybody else met with the missionaries.
It makes me feel special and the ward loves the missionaries. Maybe too much.
They get kinda of needy sometimes and we just want to focus on investigators.
But it’s a necessary thing we gotta do here.
I am still searching for the infamous, nay even illusive,
Black Pasta that calls Sicily its home. They make the Black Pasta with ink from
Squids. Supposedly it’s only small towns that have it the further East you go.
I always have my eyes peeled for it though!
Ciao Ciao...Ciao Ciao Ciao...
Love you all a sack.
Ciao Ciao...
